Roblox is too big to be safe
It may sound ridiculous, but Roblox CEO David Baszucki's justification when asked why there are so many pedophiles on Roblox is that the platform is too big and has grown too quickly.
The CEO gave a rare interview to the New York Times' Hard Fork podcast to celebrate the long awaited launch of the first real (and rudimentary) age verification system in the platform's history. Starting in December, users will be required to scan their faces using their phone's camera to gain access. An AI will then estimate their age and divide them into categories: under 9, 9-11, 12-15, and 16-18.
Before discussing the disastrous interview and the terrible measures implemented, let's have a little recap. For five years (since the platform exploded in popularity with the pandemic), Roblox has been accused of being a den for pedophiles every six months. Last year, there were 20,000 confirmed cases of child abuse on the platform in the United States alone.
YouTuber Shlep, posing as a minor, has led to the arrest of five pedophiles in the last six months, and in response, his Roblox account was shut down, accompanied by threats and letters from the company's lawyers. Fortunately, the general public hasn't stood idly by, because half of Roblox's 150 million daily users are children under 13, and the cases of abuse are so numerous that we're all somehow close to, or even have a child in our family who plays.
I'm still collecting testimonies (and I already have several) for my investigation into what happens to Italian minors when they're on the platform, and I reiterate my advice to take away Roblox from your children as soon as possible, given the number of sexual predators on the platform. With this summary and the necessary background out of the way, let's analyze David Baszucki's disastrous interview.
“We believe that (pedophiles) are not a problem but an opportunity. We have 151 million daily active users and 11 billion hours played, and we're always thinking about the best way to continue growing.” You read that right: not only did it take the company 19 years to even think about preventing adults from speaking to children under 13, but now this is a “new opportunity for growth.”
During the 40-minute interview, which I invite you to listen to just to understand how disconnected from reality the platform's CEO really is, it's never even acknowledged that Roblox has a pedophile problem, despite the lawsuits (including from entire countries) that have been piling up for years precisely because filters, parental controls, and other security devices are so easily circumvented.
One of the interviewers asks him directly: “Sexual predators aren't having much trouble bypassing your filters, and it's extremely easy to get users off the platform. What makes you feel like you're doing a good job in terms of safety and that these new measures will work?”
Baszucki's response is troubling: “I don't want to comment on that. Our priority is keeping users on the platform…many, especially those over 13, manage to find a way to log out of Roblox and have unfiltered conversations where they can send images. We're at the forefront of the industry and have filters and security features beyond those required by law.”
Pressed by the hosts, Biszucki continues: “The lawsuits point to a pattern—Roblox is where predators go to find children—but I think we're doing an incredible job considering the size of the platform and the number of hours played. We're really exploring the future of how this type of technology will evolve.”
Roblox's CEO seems convinced that the enormity of his platform is an acceptable excuse for the tens (and likely hundreds) of thousands of child abuse cases that have occurred. Speaking specifically about Roblox's meteoric growth, Biszucki seems more concerned about the company's inability to monetize all these new users than about protecting minors.
"We now have 3% of all global gaming, I can't wait to see what it will look like when we have 50%, all in one place." The disconnect from reality is dangerously evident. "We're going to entrust a lot of the moderation and security management to AI, because it's proven to be more effective than humans at managing these things," he continues, demonstrating a failure to grasp the point, the danger, and the damage his company is causing.
The icing on the cake is the final section of the interview, in which Biszucki launches into a brazen promotion of Polymarket, an illegal platform in the United States where you can bet with cryptocurrencies on prediction markets tied to a wide variety of world events. "I think it's a brilliant idea; imagine it in a legal and educational form on Roblox." Let me know if, after all this, you need more reasons to take Roblox away from your kids.
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Riccardo "tropic" Lichene